We independently review everything we recommend. When you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. Learn more›
A great stand mixer—unlike many other countertop appliances—is an investment that can last a lifetime. After over 50 hours of testing since 2013, we think that the KitchenAid Artisan Series 5-Quart Tilt-Head Stand Mixer is the absolute best stand mixer you can get for its performance, versatility, and price. It’s a workhorse worthy of heirloom status, whipping up cakes, cookies, and creams with ease, and kneading sticky bread and pizza doughs without straining. Commercial Boiling Pot
This classic mixer can tackle nearly any recipe without knocking around on the counter. It’s easier to use than many other tilt-head mixers, and is one of the quietest we tested.
This large, powerful mixer excels at mixing heavy doughs and batters, but it isn’t great at smaller jobs.
This classic mixer can tackle nearly any recipe without knocking around on the counter. It’s easier to use than many other tilt-head mixers, and is one of the quietest we tested.
We’ve been using the KitchenAid Artisan Series 5-Quart Tilt-Head Stand Mixer since 2013, and we can definitively say that it is still the best for most home bakers and cooks. The Artisan is a sturdy machine that can power through thick doughs and aerate light batters without straining. It’s easy to use and clean, and it’s built to last. KitchenAid also makes attachments like a meat grinder or pasta maker that you can use with this machine, and as an added bonus, the Artisan comes in a huge variety of fun colors.
This large, powerful mixer excels at mixing heavy doughs and batters, but it isn’t great at smaller jobs.
The KitchenAid Pro 600 Series 6-Quart Bowl-Lift Stand Mixer is a great choice for people who make a lot of bread or dense cookie dough or who like to bake in large batches. Compared with the Artisan, it has a bigger bowl, stronger motor, and added heft. It also takes up more space and runs much louder than our top pick, and it costs more, but it’s a workhorse that’s so dependable it’s often found in professional kitchens.
Wirecutter senior staff writer Lesley Stockton, the original author of this guide, has worked with stand mixers often during the course of an 18-year career in restaurants, catering kitchens, and test kitchens. Writer Anna Perling is an enthusiastic home baker who likes to whip up the occasional rhubarb pound cake or chocolate chunk shortbread, so she approached testing for the 2018 update with an eye toward features home cooks would use. Research also included reading through reviews from other publications, combing through major retailers and Amazon for notable new models to test, and interviewing kitchen experts with experience in restaurants and test kitchens.
A great stand mixer will make your baking and cooking life a lot easier and can accomplish tasks that would be harder or impossible to do by hand. A well-made stand mixer can help you turn out rustic bread loaves, moist cake layers, and dozens upon dozens of cookies. It can make quick work of whipping egg whites into meringue and heavy cream into an airy dessert topping. Great mixers also have power hubs for extra accessories that can roll out pasta dough, grind meat, slice and shred ingredients, or even shave ice.
If you bake or cook regularly and have been struggling with a low-grade or older stand mixer, or want to level up from a hand mixer, you might consider upgrading. Hand mixers are lighter and more portable than stand mixers, and they’re great for occasional bakers or those with limited storage. But a stand mixer’s extra heft and power, as well as its bigger bowl capacity, means you can make larger, more involved recipes with less effort. That may be especially helpful if you find working with a hand mixer difficult. (Keep in mind that a stand mixer is heavier to carry, though ideally you can park it on your kitchen counter.) With larger attachments and greater speeds, a stand mixer can handle tasks such as creaming butter, aerating batters, or kneading dough more efficiently than a hand mixer.
Stand mixers can be categorized in two ways: by the design of the base or by the mixing action. The design of the base determines how the beater attachment meets the bowl and comes in one of two styles:
Stand mixers also use one of two mixing actions:
We considered all styles in our research, and ultimately decided to test both tilt-head and bowl-lift models, but we dismissed those with stationary mixing action, since they mix ingredients less effectively.
Beyond design and mixing action, we looked for mixers with the following qualities:
Power and range: A great mixer should be powerful, with a range of low and high speeds to handle a variety of recipes and baking needs. Starting on a low speed will help prevent contents from splashing out of the bowl and is better for handling delicate batters; high speeds will whip cream and egg whites quickly, and cream butter and sugar to a pale and fluffy consistency. When mixing heartier doughs, a stand mixer shouldn’t strain, smoke, or “walk” even when on its highest speed.
Simple controls: Stand mixers are bulky appliances, but they should be simple and intuitive to use. It should be easy to lift or lock the head, add or remove beater attachments, attach splash guards, and secure the bowl to the base. A handle on the included bowl is extremely convenient when you’re pouring cake batter, cooking Swiss meringue over a bain-marie, or scooping cookie dough.
Interchangeable beaters: Most stand mixers come with multiple beater attachments that are meant to handle different types of recipes. Ideally, the mixer should include a paddle for beating most batters and cookie doughs, a dough hook for kneading bread, and a whisk for aerating things like egg whites or whipping cream. These attachments are usually metal, sometimes with a nylon coating, and most are dishwasher safe. Although nylon coating runs a small risk of chipping, we’ve never had that happen to our coated KitchenAid attachments, so we think either style is fine as long as it does its job effectively.
Size and heft: Baker Anne Gordon, owner of The Good Batch bakery in Brooklyn, New York, noted that a quality mixer should be heavy enough to handle its own force—which means it won’t rock around on the counter on a high speed setting. Some reviewers complain about the heavy weight of stand mixers, which is understandable if you have to pull one out of a cabinet or down from a shelf every time you need to use it. But stand mixers are really designed to be left on the counter. If you want something more portable, we recommend a hand mixer. The added heft of a stand mixer is crucial to keeping it stable and prevent it from rocking on a counter during more intensive tasks.
As for bowl size, we recommend 5 to 6 quarts, which is big enough to make about four dozen standard-size cookies or handle just about any home baking task you might want to tackle. With a larger bowl, the beaters will make less contact with small amounts of liquids or foods.
Optional accessories: Many mixers come with a power hub that allows you to attach additional accessories, like a meat grinder or pasta maker (which you have to buy separately). While this feature is not essential, we like having the option to get even more use out of what is usually a large, expensive machine.
We also considered cost when looking for mixers to test. You might be tempted to go for a cheap option if you’re shopping for your first stand mixer, but we’ve found that more expensive machines are worth it for the added mixing power, stability, and versatility. Carey recommends getting the best mixer you can afford. More money will likely get you more features and attachments, and for a tool that takes up a decent amount of counter space, we think it’s wise to get a multitasker.
For our original guide, we selected four recipes to test various aspects of a mixer’s performance: seven-minute frosting, sponge cake, kitchen sink cookies, and bread dough. For the 2018 update, we repeated all of these tests, but made pizza dough instead of bread.
We chose to make seven-minute frosting (which is the same as meringue) to test each mixer’s whipping prowess. The recipe requires you to cook egg whites, corn syrup, and sugar over a water bath until it reaches 160 degrees Fahrenheit, then whip the mixture on high for several minutes until it’s thick, white, and fluffy. Besides noting whether the mixers strained during such a long, high speed task, we also measured the volume of the frosting to see how well each machine aerated the mixture. The stated yield of this recipe is 8 cups, but getting more than that indicates better whipping abilities.
We also made a genoise (a type of sponge cake), which requires whipping whole eggs with sugar to give the cake its light, fluffy texture. Because the addition of flour in the last step of this recipe deflates the batter by about 25%, it needs to be nice and airy to begin with to get tall, tender layers. So to judge how well each mixer aerated the batter, we measured the height of the baked cakes (down to 1/16 of an inch) and looked for an even, delicate crumb.
We also checked for an even distribution of raisins, nuts, coconut, and chocolate chips in each batch of cookies, an indication that the mixer could power through a big, dense bowl of cookie dough.
Then, we kneaded pizza dough, aiming for a springy, uniform ball that was resilient to the touch. When we made bread dough in our original tests, we examined the crumb on the loaves of bread to check for an even distribution of air bubbles, signaling that the dough was mixed and aerated sufficiently.
Finally, to see if the mixers could handle small-batch recipes, we used them to whip only one egg white, and then just ½ cup of cream. And every step of the way we also took note of how easy each mixer was to use, clean, and store.
This classic mixer can tackle nearly any recipe without knocking around on the counter. It’s easier to use than many other tilt-head mixers, and is one of the quietest we tested.
After multiple rounds of research and testing and continuous use since 2013, the KitchenAid Artisan Series 5-Quart Tilt-Head Stand Mixer remains one of the few models we’ve tested that can handle every one of our mixing challenges without rocking on the counter. It churns through chunky cookie mixes, doesn’t strain when kneading bread dough, and whips up lofty frosting and perfect cake batter faster than the competition. In the Artisan’s deep-sided bowl, the whisk and beater attachments can even blend small quantities. The motor runs much quieter than those of some of the other models we tested, too. This model is also easy to wipe clean and comes with a pouring shield to keep mixing relatively mess-free. The Artisan isn’t cheap, but it’s a time-tested appliance that we’re confident will last you for years.
In both the cookie and bread tests, the Artisan mixed dough without rocking or straining the motor. The cookie recipe we used involves more mix-ins than your usual drop-cookie dough, and several of the mixers in the testing lineup strained with the effort. Though all of the mixers ultimately made beautiful and tasty loaves of bread, the two KitchenAid stand mixers we tested were the only ones that didn’t wobble while kneading.
It churns through chunky cookie mixes, doesn’t strain when kneading bread dough, and whips up lofty frosting.
When making cookies, the Artisan creamed butter and sugar so efficiently and evenly that we didn’t have to scrape the sides of the bowl. Other mixers pushed ingredients high onto the sides of their mixing bowls, and we needed to stop multiple times to use a spatula to incorporate ingredients back down into the bowl.
The Artisan can also aerate creams and batters like a champ. It yielded 9 cups of seven-minute frosting, proving that it can whip more air into a meringue than most of the other stand mixers we tested, which hovered in the still respectable range of 8¼ cups to 8½ cups. The Kenmore Elite and the KitchenAid Professional 600 actually did slightly better than the Artisan, but fell short in other areas. To further cement its whipping prowess, the Artisan made perfect genoise cake batter. The resulting cake was lofty, with a fine crumb and even doming, while the Cuisinart Precision Master and Hamilton Beach Eclectrics mixers made cakes with big air pockets and an uneven crumb, and the Kenmore Elite’s cake sank in the middle.
And while it had plenty of room for everything we threw at it, the Artisan could also handle tiny quantities, easily whipping first a single egg white and then a ½ cup of cream. Its otherwise stellar sibling, the KitchenAid Pro 600, couldn’t handle such a small batch of ingredients in its larger bowl. The Cuisinart Precision Master’s whisk struggled to fully reach such a small amount of cream, whisking it into a grainy, liquidy mess instead of a fluffy whipped topping.
The Artisan’s design is simple and user-friendly. There’s a speed control lever on the left, a switch to lock the head down on the right, and a power hub for extra accessories in the front. Many mixers will lock the head in place when it’s tilted up as well as when it’s down and positioned to mix, but the Artisan does not. This initially concerned us, but we’ve never actually had the head come crashing down on us. Meanwhile, we found the mixers that did lock the head upright, like the Cuisinart Precision Master, inconvenient. You need both hands to work the mechanism: one to press the release button, the other to simultaneously raise or lower the head. It sounds minor, but when you have a bowl of dry ingredients in your hand, it’s annoying to have to set it aside to put the mixer in place.
The Artisan comes with a nylon-coated beater and hook attachment, and a wire whisk attachment. These hook onto the machine easily, and all are dishwasher safe except for the whisk. Nylon coatings are a hot-button topic among KitchenAid owners because, over time, the nylon coating can chip off. But since we started using it in 2013, we’ve never noticed any chips. If you notice chipping on the bottom edge of your beater, it’s likely that it’s sitting too low in the bowl. Luckily, recalibrating your mixer is easy, and KitchenAid has a YouTube video that will take you through the steps. You can also buy a stainless steel beater from KitchenAid if you’re concerned about chipping.
The KitchenAid’s pouring shield—a plastic attachment that helps guide wet and dry ingredients into the bowl—is a helpful tool for curbing messes, but it isn’t essential. We like that it’s designed so you can slide it on and off at any time while mixing. On some other mixers, like the Cuisinart SM-55, you’ll need to stop the machine, lift the head, and remove the beating attachment before you can take the pouring shield off.
It’s simple to wipe down the KitchenAid Artisan’s smooth and rounded body. You can easily clean the few crevices—the hinge, the spring where the attachments connect, and the bottom where the bowl snaps in—with a damp sponge or cloth (as long as you get at splashes while they’re still fresh). The bowl and attachments are all dishwasher safe, except the wire whip.
The Artisan was one of the quietest mixers we tested. Only the Hamilton Beach was quieter, while the KitchenAid Pro 600 was the loudest and highest pitched, and the Cuisinart 5.5-Quart Stand Mixer was loud in a grumbling-motorcycle kind of way.
The Artisan also has many additional attachments you can buy to make the machine even more versatile. We’ve tested eight attachments we believed worthwhile, and found that the KitchenAid pasta roller and meat grinder can level up any cook, the slicer/shredder is a good alternative to a food processor, and the shave ice attachment is a fun extra for kids or entertaining. And though not essential, it’s a delightful bonus that KitchenAid mixers come in a huge array of colors.
Since writing our original guide in 2013, we’ve used the Artisan to make many batches of cookies and cakes, and even used it to grind meat with the meat-grinding attachment (purchased separately). In 2019, we used it to mix many, many batches of pizza dough for our pizza stone guide, and the mixer held up like a champ. Many Wirecutter writers, on the kitchen team and otherwise, have used their own Artisan mixers for years with zero problems.
But like any small appliance with a motor, it’s important not to push it too far. The key to longevity for a KitchenAid mixer is respecting its limits: Don’t overfill the bowl; make things one batch at a time; and don’t cram meat into the grinder. Although it can mix a double batch of super thick cookie dough, overloading the machine will shorten the life of the motor. If you respect its boundaries, it will give you many years of service.
KitchenAid has only a limited one-year warranty on its stand mixers, which isn’t long for such a pricey machine. But we think that if you read the manual about maintenance and know the limitations of your mixer, you shouldn’t have issues with its longevity. This is a tough machine favored by professional bakers and restaurant chefs. The Artisan is a popular and well-loved item on Amazon, and many reviewers say their machines are still going strong after 10 years or more.
KitchenAid recently tweaked its guidance to advise users not to exceed speed 2 when mixing yeast doughs, to avoid damage to the stand mixer. The company also cautions against kneading for longer than two minutes at a time, but say that doing so “is equivalent to kneading 10 - 12 minutes by hand”. We don’t think this is a dealbreaker, since we’ve made yeast doughs in KitchenAid stand mixers for years without any issue. And in our experience it’s true that KitchenAids can thoroughly mix things faster than a recipe suggests.
Another complaint we’ve heard about KitchenAid mixers is that they’re made by Whirlpool now instead of Hobart (and have been since 1986). But we’ve found no concrete evidence that this adversely affects performance. KitchenAid representatives promise that the machine is the same as when Hobart made it, still with all-metal gears and housing, and with the same patented design.
Finally, the mixer doesn’t have a built-in timer. But given that you can set a timer on your phone, this isn’t a huge concern.
This large, powerful mixer excels at mixing heavy doughs and batters, but it isn’t great at smaller jobs.
The KitchenAid Pro 600 Series 6-Quart Bowl-Lift Stand Mixer is a formidable appliance if you bake frequently or in large quantities, whether that’s hearty batches of bread, dozens of cookies, or large layer cakes. A big mixer with a big footprint, the Pro has a more powerful motor than the Artisan and can breeze through tough tasks. But it’s also significantly louder than our top pick and heavy enough that it’s best left permanently on the countertop.
The Pro 600 mixer is a taskmaster designed to tackle big jobs, which, along with the fact that it’s even more durable than the Artisan, is why it’s often found in restaurants and test kitchens. The spacious 6-quart bowl is best for tasks like making multiple loaves of bread—helped by the spiral-shaped PowerKnead dough hook, which was better at keeping dough in the bowl rather than pushing it up around the gear and spring. The heavy-duty motor powered through almost all our test batches. However, because the Pro’s bowl is larger than the Artisan’s and has a much wider bottom, the whisk couldn’t make full contact with a single egg white or whip a ½ cup of cream.
While there’s also a 5-quart bowl-lift mixer in KitchenAid’s Pro Line, we don’t think it’s worth getting over the Pro 600 for the smaller size, because the Pro line isn’t meant for whipping one egg white. If you’re willing to pay more for the extra mixing power, we think it’s best to go for the bigger bowl, since larger projects are where that powerful motor will really come into play. If you don’t bake dense doughs and big batches, you’ll find the Artisan is still strong enough to do anything you need, while also being more compact and less expensive than either the 5- or 6-quart Pros.
Like the KitchenAid Artisan, the Pro 600 has a hub for extra attachments like a pasta maker or a meat grinder, which are sold separately. The same attachments will work on both the Artisan and Pro lines interchangeably. The Pro also comes with a pouring shield that slides on conveniently to prevent ingredients from splashing out of the bowl.
The Pro 600 mixer is a taskmaster designed to tackle big jobs, which is why it’s often found in restaurants and test kitchens.
Unfortunately, the Pro 600 Series was by far the loudest, highest-pitched mixer in our testing lineup. That said, this machine is a beast, in a good way. Like the Artisan, it comes with just a one-year warranty, but in our experience working with it in commercial kitchens, it will last for many years.
If you’re looking for a slightly better deal on the Artisan, you can get a factory-refurbished KitchenAid stand mixer for around $200. But the stock changes all the time, and the mixers that appear on the website don’t necessarily reflect what is actually available, so be sure to call and talk to one of the company’s very helpful customer service representatives for updated stock. You’ll also sometimes see these refurbs from KitchenAid on Amazon for as little as $200, depending on the color.
You can also go the eBay route, which lets you sort by used items if you’re willing to take the (minimal) risk. Although the Artisan is built like a tank, you won’t get a warranty should anything go wrong.
If you want a few more features: We tested the Breville Bakery Chef in 2021, and it works well. Unlike many mixers we've tested, it was sturdy enough to resist rocking and walking on the counter as we whipped cream, mixed cookies, and kneaded pizza dough, though it did strain while mixing chunky cookie dough. And you may like some of its extra features: a timer that counts up and down, an automatically locking tilt-head, a 5-quart borosilicate-glass bowl (in addition to its 4-quart stainless steel bowl), and a silicone-coated scraper beater.
However, at this writing, the Breville Bakery Chef costs almost as much as the KitchenAid Artisan, and we don’t think it’s quite as user-friendly. We found the 5-quart glass bowl to be heavy, while the 4-quart metal bowl was too small for us to mix a large batch of kitchen sink cookies—the dough pushed up against the edges and threatened to spill over. The Bakery Chef has a dial rather than a lever to control its speed, and it has a pause function that stops the timer as well as the mixer. However, the dial is a little slower to change speeds than the KitchenAid switch, and it’s too easy to overshoot the pause setting and turn the machine off instead (which resets the timer). The Bakery Chef also doesn't work with any attachments.
The Cuisinart Precision Master Stand Mixer didn’t impress us, especially compared with the Artisan. The Precision Master is lighter weight, so it’s easier to take out of a cabinet or down from a shelf, but it rocked and strained while making fruit-and-nut–laden cookies, and even pizza dough. The whisk had a hard time whipping a small amount of cream and an egg white—the resulting mixture was loose and grainy, not fluffy. A knob rotates to select one of 12 speeds, but even the highest isn’t as fast as about medium speed on the KitchenAid. The head on the mixer tilts up and locks by default. Like most mixers we tested with this design, locking and unlocking the head slowed us down and felt awkward—you need to reach around the back of the mixer and use two hands to do so.
In 2016, KitchenAid unveiled the Artisan Mini 3.5-Quart Tilt-Head Stand Mixer. We found the smaller size to be restrictive. The Mini’s 3½-quart bowl was too small for us to finish a batch of kitchen sink cookies, and it doesn’t have a handle, so scooping cookie dough was precarious. And although the Mini is about 20% smaller than the full-size Artisan, it didn’t save a significant amount of space on our counter. The Mini Artisan measures 11¾ by 7⅜ by 12 inches (deep, wide, tall). By contrast, the classic Artisan mixer measures 13¼ by 8⅜ by 13¾ inches. If you really want a stand mixer, we suggest making room for a regular Artisan or getting a powerful hand mixer.
The Hamilton Beach Eclectrics All-Metal Stand Mixer was the quietest of all the models we tested, with a pleasant low hum. But again, rocking and walking while kneading and serious motor strain with the cookie dough were both dealbreakers. The head-release button on this model is positioned in the back, which is not a very intuitive design. With a lack of power hubs for extra accessories, this is a basic mixer that’s good for only cakes and lighter baking.
The Ankarsrum Original Mixer is a favorite of Swedish households, but it utilizes stationary mixing. And after viewing about 10 instructional videos, we came to the conclusion that using this thing involves a pretty difficult learning curve. It’s also expensive. We opted not to test it for now.
We didn’t test the KitchenAid 5 Plus Series 5-Quart Mixer because it’s somewhat awkwardly in between the KitchenAid Artisan and the KitchenAid Pro 600. It’s a bowl-lift model like the Pro 600, which means it has a more powerful motor than the Artisan and is also several inches taller and wider, as well as several pounds heavier. But we think the power and heft of a bowl-lift mixer is best put to use on larger batches, like the kind you can make in the Pro 600. If you really like the bowl-lift style, or just want a more powerful 5-quart mixer, the 5 Plus might be a good option. But for most people, we think the Artisan has all the power and capacity you need in a more compact package.
Although the KitchenAid Classic Series 4.5-Quart Tilt-Head Stand Mixer got good reviews from reputable sources, the bowl on this model is on the small side.
We recommend getting a mixer with a bowl capacity between 5 and 6 quarts, which will easily fit most standard recipes for everything from cookies to layer cakes.
Go for the 6-quart size if you frequently make big batches of things such as bread dough. Otherwise, a 5-quart mixer will surely handle anything you want to make, and works better for small tasks like whipping ½ cup of cream.
Both styles of stand mixer work well, and we recommend one in each style. Each type has pros and cons.
Tilt-head mixers are usually more compact, but bowl-lift mixers are a bit sturdier and more powerful—good for tough jobs like kneading dense bread dough. Tilt-head mixers also make it easier to swap out the beaters, but on the flip side, it’s a little easier to add ingredients to a bowl-lift mixer (when the bowl is lowered).
Hand mixers are lighter and more portable than stand mixers, but stand mixers are more powerful and efficient and have a wider range of attachments and speeds.
If you bake only occasionally or have limited space, a hand mixer can do the job. But if you bake a lot or like to tackle bigger, more complex projects, a stand mixer will save you a lot of time and energy.
Sarah Carey, then editor in chief of Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food, email interview, September 26, 2013
Anne Gordon, owner of The Good Batch, phone interview, September 27, 2013
Jane Lear, former senior articles editor at Gourmet, email interview, September 26, 2013
Lesley Stockton is a senior staff writer reporting on all things cooking and entertaining for Wirecutter. Her expertise builds on a lifelong career in the culinary world—from a restaurant cook and caterer to a food editor at Martha Stewart. She is perfectly happy to leave all that behind to be a full-time kitchen-gear nerd.
Anna Perling is a former staff writer covering kitchen gear at Wirecutter. During her time at Wirecutter, she reported on various topics including sports bras, board games, and light bulbs. Previously she wrote food and lifestyle pieces for Saveur and Kinfolk magazines. Anna is a mentor at Girls Write Now and a member of the Online News Association.
The KitchenAid Artisan Series 5-Quart Stand Mixer is a powerful workhorse.
by Lesley Stockton and Anna Perling
After 20 hours of testing, we think that the Breville Handy Mix Scraper is the best hand mixer for baking, sauces, or small-batch recipes.
The early Black Friday deal on the popular KitchenAid stand mixer may be the lowest price we see on it this holiday season.
Writer and novelist Roxane Gay hasn’t mastered baking yet, but her KitchenAid is helping her get there.
Plate Heat Exchanger Wirecutter is the product recommendation service from The New York Times. Our journalists combine independent research with (occasionally) over-the-top testing so you can make quick and confident buying decisions. Whether it’s finding great products or discovering helpful advice, we’ll help you get it right (the first time).